On writing, creativity, psychological reality, and dreams

My Two-Year Blogging Anniversary

Last week, I participated in a tag that made me reflect a bit on my blog. This week, I decided to take that further and talk about my blogging journey, which actually began even before I started this blog.

Back in 2015. I knew I wanted to be a self-published author and I began building my author platform that year. My research showed a blog would be necessary to complete my author platform. I had never blogged before so I wasn’t quite sure where to start. I had read that blogging about topics related to your writing was the best way to connect with readers and that seemed very logical to me.

At the time, I was very interested in writing historical mystery fiction. I had starting writing the first book of a series during National Novel Writing Month in 2013, finishing it a year later and I already had planned the next two books in the series. My original intent was to publish historical mysteries so it made sense to build a blog around this genre. I began a blog I called Mother Time Musings in April 2015. My plan was to cover a wide variety of topics about history and women, two aspects of my series that were important. I created an elaborate blogging schedule that included the following:

Past Blast Tuesday posts: These were posts related to historical topics spanning the Victorian era and into the Great Depression, the eras I had always been most interested in.

Flicks Friday posts: These were posts about classic films, a great passion of mine, as most of my blog readers know. Many related to both history and women.

Sunday Musings posts: I occasionally made posts related to my writing life.

The first post I made was a Past Blast Tuesday post on June 15, 2015 about the separate spheres, a Victorian concept that defined men and women’s roles during the period. My first post for Flicks Friday was about career and family in the films All About Eve and The Star. I rewrote that post for the Bette Davis Blogathon a few months ago. And my first Sunday Musings post was about the difficulty of writing mystery fiction.

The blog lasted through January 2016. I decided to discontinue the blog for several reasons. By that time, I had done some serious thinking about what I really wanted out of my writing career and I came to see I really wanted to pursue my passion for psychological fiction. I also realized the blog, while informative, read more like an online encyclopedia than a writer’s blog. The posts were well researched but impersonal. I knew if I wanted to really make a connection with readers, I had to put myself out there on my blog as a writer and a person. I knew I wanted to explore ideas about psychological reality and creativity in my own work and in others. I also wanted to incorporate imagination and dreams (my own and dream-like ideas) in my posts and talk about other arts, not just writing.

As I explained in last week’s post, I started my new blog in February 2016. I chose a topic I felt would set the tone for my new blog and my new writing direction in reflecting on my own fears and the evolution of my Waxwood novella series.

Since then, I’ve been very happy with this new blog and so grateful for everyone who takes the time to read my posts. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

About Me

I was born in Israel but grew up in the United States. I earned my B.A in English before returning to the States. I also have a Master's degree and worked as an English instructor and EFL teacher before I became a full-time writer. I started writing when I was 14 and writing became my voice. I write psychological fiction that explores emotional realities informed by past experiences, dreams, feelings, fantasies, nightmares, imagination, and self-analysis. I currently live in Texas but calls the San Francisco Bay Area home. When I'm not writing, I'm reading classic literature and watching classic films.

Please check out my website at www.tammayauthor.com for more about me and the projects I'm currently working on.